


Somehow We End Up on the Same Side (& You Wouldn't Think That We'd Be Alright)

by EternallyEC



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Jori - Freeform, Post-Canon, The finale we should have gotten, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26622475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternallyEC/pseuds/EternallyEC
Summary: The way she looks at you scares the shit out of you.- OR -A character study interspersed with the headcanon I came up with months ago for how the seriesshouldhave ended.
Relationships: Tori Vega/Jade West
Comments: 8
Kudos: 135





	Somehow We End Up on the Same Side (& You Wouldn't Think That We'd Be Alright)

**Author's Note:**

> Just wanted to drop a quick note here to say that I will be moving shortly, and I'm hoping to resume updating more often after that. I've had a lot of stress in my personal life, as I'm sure all of you can relate to, but my fics are _not_ abandoned, and I'm hopeful that I'll be back to writing more regularly once I get settled into my new place. 
> 
> For now, please enjoy this version of the series finale I wish we'd gotten.

The way she looks at you scares the shit out of you.

You're supposed to be the scary one, the one everyone fears, but it's like no one gave her the memo. From the day you met, you knew that she'd be trouble. Well, maybe that's not quite true. The day you met, you'd been convinced that your plan to scare her off had worked, that she'd go back to whatever no-name high school she'd come from and leave you in peace. 

And then she'd walked into class the next day, called you up on stage even, and bested you at your own game. She'd even kissed your boyfriend in front of everyone, but even through your rage and jealousy, you'd known that she wasn't doing it to try to take Beck away from you. No, this girl was too good for that. She was letting you know that she wasn't afraid of you and that she wasn't going to let you run her off. 

You'd never admit it even to yourself, but you were impressed by her tenacity even then. You had no idea how much the annoying girl you'd met while she was rubbing your boyfriend's chest would come to mean to you, the way she'd  _ change _ you. Sometimes you still can't believe it. 

But as time passed, you got used to her presence and even her annoying insistence on being your friend. Sometimes, you'd even let her in because god, it felt good to have someone who saw through you, even when it scared the shit out of you. 

Sometimes though... sometimes, you catch her staring at you when she thinks you don't notice and the way she's looking at you scares you. Soon, you come to fear her for the way she can make  _ you _ feel even more than that doomed trip to the ocean when you were in third grade made you fear the ocean, and you have no idea what to do with that. 

So you ignore it and ignore  _ her _ for a while, being crueler to her than usual and hoping and wishing that she'll  _ take a hint _ and leave you alone. You don't even acknowledge to yourself how much you'd hate it if she actually did. And, luckily or unluckily, she never does. 

And then, graduation day comes. 

You're so far from the mean girl who'd dumped coffee over her head on her first day, and your relationship with her has evolved too. You still refuse to call her your friend, but at this point, both of you know it's a weak, last-ditch barrier that doesn't mean anything at all. When she calls you that, your rejection is habitual at best, the last vestige of the defenses she's worn down over the years until none remain. 

When she pulls you into the janitor's closet after a delay for the ceremony is announced, you don't protest, not even when she keeps her hand clasped around your wrist long after the door shuts behind you. 

"I want to tell you something," she blurts out after a long moment of just staring at each other. Your back is to the door, her fingers like a warm vise around your wrist, yet you don't feel trapped like you know you should. It's  _ her _ and she's always been different though, exempt from the rules everyone else has to play by to get along with you. Not even Beck would have gotten away with such a maneuver as this when you were dating, and you try to ignore the implications of that thought.

"So tell me," you reply at length, your tone demanding as you arch your eyebrow.

You thought you knew what to expect, but really, you should have learned by now that this girl  _ always _ does the unexpected. When she leans forward and kisses you, though, you're glad about that. 

If you'd had time to think about it, you know that you probably wouldn't have kissed her back. Your mind had come up with a hundred different ways giving in to your feelings for her was a bad, terrible, no-good idea over the last couple of years, and you know your story would've had a very different ending if you'd been given a chance to think about it. 

But she doesn't give you that chance and your thoughts are silenced immediately at the sensation of soft lips moving tentatively against yours. You kiss her back, moving your hands to her hips as you let yourself give in to the feelings you've been fighting for so long that you can't remember a time when you weren't. 

And when she finally draws back, giving you an uncertain smile, you mutter, "The hell with it," and lean forward to kiss her again. 

(No one is surprised when you both barely make it back in time for the walk, still straightening your clothes and trying to fix frizzy hair, in her case, if the grins and thumbs up sent your way are any indication. Not to mention Cat's exaggerated wink that you silently vow to yourself to get her back for, although the grin you can't quite wipe off your face is too bright for even the redhead to take your threat seriously.) 

You always knew that things would change after high school, always thought you'd hate it the way you hate all change. But when you sit down beside her after walking and she shyly slips her hand into yours, you can't help but think that maybe not all change is bad after all. 

And maybe, just maybe, you think as you catch her staring at you the way that had once scared you so much, neither of you looking away this time; maybe this time, there's nothing to be scared of at all. 

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Ultimate Jori Theme Song _Why_ by **Sabrina Carpenter**! (With special thanks to C for introducing me to it!)


End file.
